Swirling Fates
by HeatnixoftheFlame
Summary: The woeful tale of the last two Shinobi in the Fire Country. Their oncefriendship has evolved into a bitter hatred. One will die. One will prevail. The end of all things to come for the Konoha shinobi is at hand. M for language and gore.


**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or any related characters or concepts. There, now you can't sue me.

It was finally going to end. After all the years, all the heartache, all the struggle, all the blood, sweat and tears, after all everything that traitorous bastard had put us through…

Today, it was going to end. He would see to that.

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Naruto looked out over the now-tattered battlefield. The gloomy, burdening clouds thundered a death-cry overhead. They too knew blood would be shed. Naruto thought about the coming battle, and he could feel the Kyuubi's blood begin to boil.

Six years. Six long years since he had completed his training with Jiraiya and returned to Kohohagakure. And from there, everything became terrible. Akatsuki gave him so much grief and pain. As wrong as he knew it was to think it back then, he was almost angry that he hadn't gotten to kill all of Akatsuki's members himself.

Let's see here…Sakura killed the puppeteer…Kakashi killed that freak with the masks, although Naruto had almost killed him…Shikamaru sort of killed that immortal guy…screw it, there were too many to remember. Naruto had killed his fair share, that's all that mattered. He looked down at the black Akatsuki cloud that he had put on his coat after Akatsuki's defeat. He wanted everyone to know that Akatsuki was gone, and that it was thanks to him. He would get the respect he deserved, even if he hadn't become Hokage before Konoha's complete destruction.

But Sasuke…forget the fact that he finally killed Itachi, that didn't matter. That son of a bitch killed Orochimaru. After all the work that the leaf ninja had put into Orochimaru's defeat, Sasuke killed him like it was nothing. All Naruto's friends had seemed shocked when they learned of his anger at not being able to personally kill his enemies. But once they realized exactly how much Naruto had lost after Konoha's destruction, they really couldn't blame him.

Sasuke had put him through a lot of excess pain too. Naruto was his best friend, and he just up and left. Going to go get power just to resolve his stupid brother issue. They could have helped him. He had hurt Sakura. He had hurt Naruto. He was going to pay today. When Sasuke arrived at the battlefield, and he _would_, Naruto was going to kill him. Today, he was going to end Sasuke's life.

His tails rustled in the wind. Since Akatsuki's defeat, he had reached a new tier of power. The side-effects of his kyuubi transformation were no longer relevant, because he was in this form all the time now. He felt so powerful now. The eight tails that flowed from the end of his spine now were his crown. They were his symbol of absolute power. Forget that old Hokage hat. He had these. If he ever found out how to release the ninth tail, he might as well become a god. But it wasn't like he needed it. He was plenty powerful with just eight. They would be all he needed to kill Sasuke.

Almost as if he had performed a summoning jutsu, Naruto got his wish. Over the horizon, he felt chakra coming toward him. Sasuke. Naruto became more and more enraged as Sasuke came closer. The time was near. By the time Sasuke finally reached Naruto, Naruto's rage had peaked.

"You've got a hell of a lot of nerve coming here," Naruto started. "I see you didn't make a team to come fight with you this time."

"Who would I bring with me?" Sasuke asked. "The only one capable of killing you is me. And besides…everyone else is dead."

"How would you know. You were never at home. YOU LEFT US, YOU BASTARD!!!"

"You left too, Naruto," Sasuke stated. "That's the one thing you keep overlooking. You left home to come find me, and you never came back. Home was one of the first places I went. But when I got there, everyone was dead or dying. And you were a ghost. You tainted the place with your accursed chakra and left. Now, everyone is gone. You and I are the last."

"You're just as guilty as I am. You chose not to protect the village, so you might as well have been the one that destroyed it," Naruto said.

"That very well may be," Sasuke said. "But there are two flaws to that logic. First, we both know I would never do anything to purposefully harm the village as a whole. Maybe a few people in it, but never the whole village. And secondly, Naruto, you _are_ the one who destroyed the village. You're the one who caused the death of every man, woman and child in all of Konoha. In your rage and bloodlust, you killed them all." Sasuke could tell that Naruto was becoming less angry and more mournful. This would be good if Sasuke intended to kill him. "Tell me, how did you manage to kill Sakura? She was physically stronger than either one of us. Hell, she was stronger than Tsunade. How does it feel to know that you've lost your mind to the point where you killed our best friend? To the point where you've killed all of our friends? How does it feel to be responsible for turning the entire Fire Nation into one big, vast wasteland?"

Sakura peeked around the corner. Naruto was there, on his knees. He'd killed again. This time, it was a citizen of Konoha. She couldn't believe how violent he'd gotten in recent weeks. Enemies that he killed where now nothing more than bloody pulps as he killed them. It seemed like the stronger Naruto got…the more he started to slip into insanity.

He was kneeling over the body. She inched forward silently. She was afraid Naruto would hear her, but then she realized, he was crying! At least he was still feeling sorrow for his actions. As long as he had that, he was still human.

An eternity passed as she stood there. At the same time, it was the most gruesome, and most saddening thing she'd ever seen. He'd killed Konohamaru. His "disciple." No wonder he was so sad over this. Without warning, "Naruto?" It took her a moment to realize that she was the one who had spoken.

Naruto whirled around, tears flowing freely from his blood-shot, cat-like eyes. The Kyuubi had him, but not completely. "Sakura…I killed him!" Naruto buried his face in his hands. As she looked down at Konohamaru's corpse, Sakura felt the urge to vomit. The boy's entrails were spread out from his body, like the legs of a giant, horrific spider. His blood filled the room. His lungs were pulled from his body, and large chunks were missing from each. A look of terror was paralyzed on his face. Tears quickly welled up in Sakura's eyes as well.

Slowly and gently, Sakura kneeled next to Naruto. As he cried, she put her hand on his shoulder.

Naruto quickly recoiled and grabbed Sakura's hand, immediately snapping her wrist. "You're going to try to kill me now, aren't you? Aren't you?! Well, you're not going to. Nothing can stop me now, Sakura, not even you." Naruto's speech was garbled and fast. Sakura could barely make out what he was saying, especially through the searing, throbbing agony in her wrist. She had to get away from him or he would kill her. The demon within him had taken over. She reared back her left hand, and poured her chakra into it. This hit would have to count.

As her fist rocketed forward, Naruto caught it. He actually caught one of her chakra punches. A claw of red chakra swirled outward from Naruto's hand and ripped into her own hand. The claws tore through her flesh, breaking all the bones from within. "You're not the strongest anymore, Sakura."

Naruto grabbed Sakura by her throat and held her against the wall. Her vision blurred. He kissed her. She felt the urge to vomit again; his lips tasted of blood. Konohamaru's blood. Now she realized why pieces of his lungs were missing. Naruto had devoured them, probably while Konohamaru was still alive.

As Naruto broke the kiss, Sakura was momentarily distracted by the red chakra tail that popped up behind him. _Oh shit_. Her attention was once again stolen, however, by a sharp pain in her stomach. As Naruto's hand rent her stomach, she screamed in agony. The ever-expanding aura of physical chakra around Naruto widened the wound slowly, eating away at her flesh and causing a pain like she had never felt before.

He threw her on the floor. What was next? "You know, Sakura…" She felt his hand on her posterior. She prayed that this was not going where she thought it was. "Ever since I met Kimimaro, he's intrigued me. It was so easy for him to pull his bones out of his own body. Just didn't seem like it should be that easy. And I've been meaning to try it out. Want to help me?"

_Please, no,_ she thought. She felt the claws dig into the upper part of her butt. As they reached deeper, she felt his hand grasp the bottom of her spinal cord. He leaned close to her ear. "Please, Naruto," she cried. "Don't…"

"You always did like him better than me. And I never knew why. After that traitorous son of a bitch left the both of us, he was still all you could think about. After all the pain he caused you. Well, now it's my turn to cause you some pain," Naruto mused.

Sakura was puzzled for a moment. What should have been the most excruciating pain possible, she didn't feel. It only took her a moment to remember that the spinal cord is a major part of the central nervous system. She couldn't feel the pain because her nervous system was presently overloaded. She felt air rush in through the ever-lengthening line going up her back. She heard cracking noises as bones ripped out of place.

Then she felt it. A stinging sensation, slowly rising up out of her abdomen. As the pain crept up her back, it became exponentially more intense, until it consumed her. She went into shock as her other senses escaped her. There were no sights. There were no sounds. All she could feel, was an ever-consuming, maddening pain. And then, nothing.


End file.
